Machine for assembling uppers and their lasts



May 15,1945. E. A HOLMGREN MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING UPPERS AND THEIR LASTS.

Filed Dec. 29, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet l May 15 1945. E. A. HOLMGREN' MACHINE .EOR ASSEMBLING UPPERS AND THEIR LASTS Filed Dec. 29, 1942 Z SheetS Sheet 2' PatentedMay 15,, 1945 a *i-J STATE MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING UPPERS AND I HE A H l Eric A. Ho1mgren, Beverly Mass., assignor to United Shoe Machinery (JorporatiomFleming ton, N. J r, a corporation of New Jersey Application December 29, 1942, Serial no. 470,464 1 (c1. 12-4) c aims.

This invention relates to machines for: assemb'ling uppers and their lasts and is herein illustratedin its application to machines of this type particularly; adapted to handle prewelt upi pers, that is, uppers to which a sole-attaching welt is-secured prior to theassembling operation. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited in its scope to machines adapted to assemble prewelt uppers and their lasts but is applicable to machines adapted to handle shoe uppers generally. i It is usual in the manufacture of prewelt shoes topreshape the prewelted upper before the upper ismounted on its last. This is sometimes done by gathering the toe portion of the lasting inargin during the operation of stitching the welt to the upperbut I prefer to perform the preshaping operation in a machine specially designed for that purpose and illustrated in my cof-pending application for, Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 466,974, filed November 26, 1942. Said machine expands and forms both thetoe portion and the heelportion of the upper,

thuspreparing the upper to receive the last. The weltedmargin of the upper thus prepared isslightly shorter than the peripheral measure of a last ofa size correspodingto the upper and, consequently, the welted margin offers some resistance to the introduction of the last into the upperg Itis an object of the resent invention to providea manually operated machine for use in assembling the preshaped upperand its last; The use ofsuch a machine facilitates and expedites the assembling operation and also insures the correct positioning of the upper on its last; -With the above object in view, the invention in spending end portion of the upper. 'The assembling operation isperformed by a-depressor which engages that endportion of the last which lies adjacent to the horn "and forces it into the upper which is held in position on the convexsurface of the horn by gripping means constructed and arranged to engage the sole attaching face of the .welt. In accordance with a further feature of the invention; a common actuator is-provided one aspect thereof consists in-the provision in a l l machine for assembling an upper on its last, of a member constructed and arranged to position the last and the upperduring their relativemove ment into assembledposition, said member having a gage iordetermini'ng theiheightwise posi tion of the upper and another gage for determining the heightwise position of the last after it has beeninserte'd into the upper. Said member in accordance with a feature of the invention is also provided with means herein illustrated as downward extensions at" opposite side. portions of said member for relatively positioning the last and the upper widthwise thereof. .As herein illustrated, the lastfand upper positioning member isa rigid curved plate orhornthe concave surfa'cewof which receives an end portion oi:the last.

while-thewconvex surface receiveswthe comei Fig. 2 is a side elevation, similar showing the parts in their respective positions after the operations of the machine have been;

foroperating the-last depressor and the gripping means. Thefconnections'from the actuator to the gripping meansinclude a resilient element which applies increasing pressure to the gripping means as the last is forced into the upper. The illustrated gripping means'comprises a flange or lip formed in the horn and arranged to engage the innersurface of the welted margin of the upper and aresilient gripper element constructed and arranged toengage the sole attaching face of the welt. i i

These: and other features of the invention will be described with'reference to theaccompany ing drawings and pointed out in the appended.

claims. a t In the drawings, l

to Fig. 1,

completed; i

Fig. "3 is a section on the line III-III of Fig. 2;and l t Fig. 4 is a section on the line IV IV of Fig. 3.

The numeral l0 indicates the forward portion of themachine head and the numeral l2. indicates a vertical cylindrical portion in a forward extension of the machine head'whichis bored to provide a bearing for a vertical sliding shaft M having alast depressor l6 secured to its lower end portion. The lower portion of the machine head -is bored to provide a. bearing for'a sliding shaft 18, the forward end portion. of which is provided with ahead20v which carries a gripper mem-.

ber herein illustrated. as a resilient rubber block 22." Secured to' the arcuat'eforward face of an extension 24 of the machine head is a rigid horn 26 which is generally semi-.circularin cross section, and has its concave surface facing forwardly for thereceptionof the toe-portion of a last, for

example, the last: 28' illustrated-in- Fig. 1. The side and rear-faces of, the. last depressor l6 are Fig. l is a side elevation illustrating the head i and the treadle of a machine embodying the fea-. tures of the present invention, a last and upper together with the last depressor and the horn being shown in longitudinal section;

' vexity of the last bottom may be.

complemental in shape to the concave face of the horn 26, the last depressor being positioned adjacent to the horn for operation on the toe portion of the last 28. The bottom of the last depressor has a central recess 3i] which enables the depressor to operate against the margin of the last bottom whatever the degree of con- This enables the depressor to level the last widthwise thereof as it is forced into the upper.

In the operation of the machine, the operatormanually supports an inverted upper,- for example, the prewelt upper 32 illustrated in Fig 1, with the welted margin at the toe portion of the upper embracing the lower portion of the horn 26. The operator locates the upper heightwise thereof with relation to the horn by bringing the inner edge of the welt at opposite sides of the toe portion of the upper into engagement with gage members herein illustrated as plates 34 (Figs. 3 and 4) secured to the convex surface of the horn and having their lower end portions outturned for engagement with the welt. The

toe portion of the upper is gripped and held in this position by the forward movement of the gripper member 22 which grips the margin at the toe end of the upper against an outturned flange or lip 36 at the lower portion of the horn. In operating on prewelt uppers, the gripper member 22 engages the sole-attaching face of the welt and grips both the welt and the upper against the lip 36. Thus, it will be seen that any possible injury .to the finished surfaces of the upper or the welt by the action of the gripper members is obviated and there can be no strain on the welt seam such as might be expected if the gripper member 22 operated within the Welt crease. For centering the toe portion of the last widthwise thereof, with relation to the toe portion of the supported upper, the opposite sides of the horn 26 have. downward extensions 38 which engage opposite sides 'of the toe portion of the last as shown in Fig. 4.

Both the gripper member 22 and the last depressor l6 are actuated by the depression of a treadle 46 mounted to swing about a fulcrum 42 at its rear end portion. The treadle is connected by a link 44 to a lever 46 which operates the last depressor, the rear portion of said lever being fulcrumed at the upper end of an arm 48, the lower portion of which is mounted for swin ing movement on a fixed fulcrum At its forward portion the lever 66 is pivoted to the upper end of the sliding shaft M which carries the last depressor. For operating the gripper member 22, a spring 52 extends upwardly from the treadle 40 to the-end of the horizontal arm of a bell crank lever 5d pivotally mounted at its elbow on a rearwardextension 56 of the machine head, the vertical arm of said bell crank lever having a pin-and-slot connection to the rear portion of the sliding shaft I8.

'In the operation of the illustrated machine in the manufacture of prewelt shoes, a prewelt upper which preferably has been preshaped by means of a machine, such, for example, as that illustrated in my co-pending application for Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 466,974, filed November 26, 1942, is manually supported in inverted position with its'toe portion embracing the horn 26, as shown in Fig. 1.

While the operator holds the upper in predeter mined position on the horn, the last is inserted into the upper and positioned as shown in Fig. 1 with its toe portion resting against the concave ber 22.

surface of the horn 26. The operator then depresses the treadle 40 whereupon the gripper member 22 and the last depressor l6 advance simultaneously. The gripper member comes into gripping engagement with the sole attaching face of the welt before the last depressor completes the insertion of the last into the upper andduring the remainder of the depression of the treadle, the spring 52is expanded, thus applying increasing pressure to the gripper mem- The limit of the downward movement of the last is determined by the movement of the peripheral surface of the toe end of the last'off the concave surface of the horn 26 and the engagement of the toe end portion of the last bottom with the bottom faced the lip, as shown in Fig 2, said lip serving to gage the heightwise position of thelast after it has been inserted into the upper. Upon completion of the last inserting movement, the treadle 40 is permitted to return to its elevated position under the tension of a spring 58 and during the upward movement of the treadle link 44 a pin projecting therefrom engages the bell crank lever and retracts the gripper member 22. Thereupon the last and upper are moved toewardly to disengage the upper from the lip 36 of the horn and then downwardly away from the upper-gripping mechanism. The upper is held on the last bythe tension ofthe welt during the interval between the completion of the assembling operation and the lasting operation which follows immediately thereafter.

invention is not limited in its scope to machines.

for assembling prewelt'uppers and their lasts but is applicable to the assembling of other types of uppers on their lasts provided only the lasting margin of the upper has ben contracted or gathered so. that it will remain on the last after the assembling operation.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: w

1. In a machine for assembling an upperand a last, a member constructed and arranged to position the last and the upper during their relative movement into assembled position, said member having a gage for determining the heightwise position of the upper, and another gage for determining the heightwise position of the last after it has been inserted into the upper.

2. In a machine for assembling an upper and a last, a member constructed and arranged to position the last and the upper during their relative movement into assembled position, said member having a gage for determining the heightwise position of the upper, another gage for determining the heightwise position of thelast after it has been inserted into the upper, and means on said member for positioning the last widthwise thereof relatively to the upper.

3. In a machine for assembling an upper and a last,-a last depressor, a rigid horn for guidguiding the last during its depression into the upper, and means for gripping the upper and holding it in position to receive the, last comprising gripping means constructed and arranged to engage the inner surface of the upper and a coooperating gripping member constructed and arranged to engage the sole-attaching face of the welt and mounted for upper-gripping movement relatively to said gripping means.

5. In amachine for assembling an upper and a last, a last depressor for inserting the last into theupper, cooperating grippers constructed and arranged to close on the lasting margin of the upper to support the upper for the last-inserting operation, and a common actuator for operating the last depressor and the closing the grippers.

6. In a machine for assembling an upper and a last, a last depressor for inserting a last into a supported upper, a horn for guiding the last during its movement into the upper, a gripper member for gripping the lasting margin of the upper against the horn, an actuator, connections from the actuator to the gripper member in eluding a resilient element, and connections from the actuator to the, last depressor constructed and arranged to complete the last-inserting movement after the gripper member has gripped the upper against the horn.

7. In a machine for assembling an upper and its last, a last depressor for inserting a last into a supported upper, a horn for guiding the last during its movement into the upper, a gripper member for gripping the margin of the upper against the horn, an actuator, connections from the actuator to the gripper member including a resilient element and connections from the against the horn, an actuator, connections from the actuator to the gripper'member including a resilient element and connections from the actuator to the lastdepressor constructed and arranged to complete the last-inserting movement after the gripper member has gripped the margin of the upper against the'horn, a gage extending outwardly from the horn for determining the heightwise position of the upper thereon, and a gage on the horn for determining the heightwise position of the last after itsinsertion into the supported upper.

9. In a machine for assembling an upper and its last, a last depressor for inserting a last into a supported upper, a horn for guiding the last during its movement into the upper, a gripper member for gripping the margin of the upper against the horn, an actuator, connections from,

the actuator to the gripper member including a resilient element and connections from the actuator to the last depressor constructed and ar;-

ranged to complete the last-inserting movement after the gripper member has gripped the margin of the upper against the horn, a gage extending outwardly from the horn for determining the heightwise position of the upper thereon, and

downward extensions at opposite side portions of i said horn between which the last is positioned widthwise thereof in predetermined relation to the supported upper.

10. In a machine for assembling a prewelt upper and its last, a last depressor for inserting one end portion of a last into a supported upper after the opposite end portion has been loosely positioned within the upper, a rigid horn for guiding the end portion of the last during its insertion into the upper, an upper grippin flange extending outwardly from said horn for engagement with the inner surface of the upper, a cooperating gripper member constructed and arranged to engage the sole-attaching face of the welt, and an actuator for simultaneously actuating said last depressor and said gripper member, the advancement of the gripper member being completed before the last is fully inserted into the upper.

ERIC A. HOLMGREN. 

